


Blood Rage

by ReScripta



Category: Rango (2011)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:14:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 4,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27452551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReScripta/pseuds/ReScripta
Summary: A killer frightens the town Dirt. His victims are always outlaws. But his kill methods are horrible. He let them bleed to death. Or did he suck them out? Can Rango put an end to that chain of murders? - T for blood. It’s without supernatural elements! All animals exist in reality.
Kudos: 8





	1. Lie in waiting

The sun disappeared behind the hills of the Mojave Desert. It seemed to become a night like all the others.

But many animals didn't sleep. There were on the hunt, or were just walking around, like now.

An old rodent of middle age went between the flat rocks and was busy to count the money.

He chuckled. "The gamble paid off."

Grinning, he closed the bag. "I love my job."

He stopped when he reached an old wooden signpost:

" _Dirt (Mud) – This way."_

The rodent lifted his head. "Oh, Dirt. There lives an old friend of mine. Maybe it would be not a bad idea to pay him a little visit."

With these thoughts he turned to the right and didn't realize the two waylaying eyes, which watched him a few meters away. In this second, his fate was sealed, that he would never reach the town.


	2. Something terrible

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, … ten…"

After the tenth push up, Rango sank to the ground. With panting, he lay on the floor in the sheriff office.

"Oh, come on," he said to himself. "Just one more."

"Rango!"

The door was opened and Beans came in.

"Stop!"

The lizard girl stopped immediately before she could fall over the chameleon.

"Beans," Rango rebuked her. "Can't you knock first? For this propose doors were built."

He stood up.

"Slim is there," Beans said without an apology. "He said, he had seen something terrible in the desert."

While Rango was rubbing his aching back, he looked at her with question filled eyes.

"Something terrible? But not one of the Area 102 things, right?"

"He is in the saloon, come with me."

She grabbed his arm and pulled him outside.

* * *

Slim, the old desert vulture with a leg prosthesis, sat on a chair, his face empty and aimless.

He even didn't move when the two lizards rushed in.

"Oh, hi Slim," Rango greeted and walked over to him. "How are you? Everything fine?"

But Slim didn't seem to hear him.

"Uh, Slimmy?"

Rango waved with a hand over his eyes, but still no reaction.

"I saw it."

"What did you see? Tell me, buddy."

With these words, the chameleon took out his notebook and was ready to write down information.

"Four miles eastwards away from the town. In a small ravine."

"And what is there?"

But Slim only reiterated the directions. It was impossible to get out something different from him.

"Alright," Rango closed the dialog. "I will collect some people and we will take a look at it."


	3. A clean corpse

"It must be here," Rango promulgated and climbed down from this roadrunner.

Behind him Beans, Doc, Waffles and Elgin.

"Beans, I don't like it that you came with us, you know that."

The lizard girl rolled her eyes. "I have seen enough terrible things in my life. Don't be a coward."

"Hey, I'm not the coward," Rango protested and lifted his head.

Beans wanted to go first, but Rango held her arm.

"No, Beans, it's still the best that I go first and check the environment."

With these words the chameleon walked along a natural stone wall, the first monuments of the ravine. The others followed him with drew weapons. Rango moved his eyes in all directions, but he found no suspect things.

Finally, they came to a little niche, where a way led to a hidden dry maar glade, which had surrounded with red-orange stone walls.

Suddenly Rango froze. There lay something on the floor.

"What's that?"

Rango went closer, but shortly after he flinched. It was a rodent. The man lay on the back, his arms stretched like Jesus on the cross. Around lay a circle of dried little branches. And on his chest lay a desert flower.

The chameleon bent more down to look at the rodent's face and was horrified. Never he had seen such a face.

It was clear, the rodent was dead, but he looked so pale, even with the fur.

Rango swallowed. "D-doc?" he stuttered. "Could you…"

He didn't speak more and pointed just at the corpse.

The one ear rabbit came immediately and examined the dead rodent.

"This man died because of blood loss," he came to the conclusion. "But I see no wounds."

"Bled out and no wounds, how is that possible?" Waffles asked.

Rango scanned the ground. But there were no footprints. Not even blood stains.

He felt Beans's eyes. "What does that mean?" she asked with the glance on the desert flower on the victim's chest.

Rango knitted his brow. "Looks like a ritual murder."

He didn't pay longer attention to it and searched the area.

"Did you find anything?" Elgin asked, when he saw how the chameleon picked up something. It was long and thin. It looked like a little needle, or a very little arrow, half long like his finger.

"Doc," he said and handed it to the rabbit. "Survey this, please."

Doc nodded and wrapped it in a towel.

"What about him?" Waffles asked and pointed at the ritualed rodent.

"We will bring him to my house", Doc said.

Rango nodded. But before they left, he let his eyes wander over the area.

What had happened here?


	4. Small stitches

An uncomfortable feeling wrapped the chameleon when he eyed some preserving jars in Doc's shelves.

Meanwhile, they had returned to town and Rango was waiting for the result of the doctor.

At this moment, Doc pushed aside a curtain of a little room and walked over to the sheriff.

"Fascinating, aren't they, Sheriff?"

He looked at the glasses with some organs inside.

Rango swallowed. "Oh, yes, very interesting.

"Indeed," Doc agreed. "Some souvenirs from Mr. Black. We are colleagues in a sort somehow."

Rango forced a chuckling. "Aha, I understand… well… what's your result, Doc?"

"Oh, well then, I searched the corpse, but I found no wounds, but some things are strange."

"What's strange?"

Doc waved him over. "Come with me. I will show you something."

They went behind the curtain where the rodent lay on a table. The rabbit took the arm of the dead body and showed under the fur.

Rango narrowed his eyes. The skin was a little swollen and blue.

"That's very unusual," Doc said. "I know such kind of pictures after an injection. But very clean. Do you see it? A very specific stitch in the vein."

Rango pulled his collar. "Okay, yes, very interesting, Doc. What about the needle what we found? Could it be what it caused here?"

Doc went to another little table and held the little arrow in his paws.

"Well, I've never seen such kind of weapon, but I guess that it was coated with something. And the injection stitch was different. No, it had to be another sharp thing. And by the way..."

He bent more over to the sheriff. "As far as I can judge, somebody had tied his hands and he seemed to still alive while he died slowly."

Suddenly the door was opened. The two men turned around and a little owl stood in the room.

"Ambrose?" Rango asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard about a corpse," Ambrose explained. "And after some people described him, I had an assumption."

They looked at the dead rodent.

"Do you know this man?" Rango asked.

Ambrose came closer and eyed it.

"Fingersmith Joo," the owl answered sadly.

"Uh," Rango knitted his brow. "Was he a criminal?"

"Not really," the owl said. "Well, we knew each other after we were caught at card-sharping in Timberly Town."

Rango put his hands on his hips. "Well, well. Such kind of friends do you have?"

"Long time ago, Sheriff," Ambrose said quickly. "His head money wasn't high."

Thoughtfully, they looked at the corpse.

"Mm, pitiful," Rango said finally. "Maybe he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Doc, pass him to Mr. Black. I leave the work to you."

With these words he left the house.

Maybe he could close the case. Maybe it was just a disagreement between two outlaws. The only thing what caused great anxiety was why the murderer had executed him so elaborately. Why not only with a headshot? Why this ritual?

But this should cause him a headache soon again.


	5. Victim number two

With a deep sigh, the chameleon looked down at the raccoon on the desert ground.

Doc stood up and looked at the sheriff with worried eyes.

"Same method?" Rango asked.

Doc nodded. "Like the last one."

Rango rubbed his eyes thoughtfully.

Three days had passed after the strange death of Fingersmith Joo. And now, a new corpse, not far away from the town. Around the man dried branches and a desert flower on the chest. And bloodless like an emptied bottle.

"I know him, Sheriff," Elbows said behind the chameleon. "Or more, I knew him. It's Black Eye Rick."

Rango raised his eyebrows. "An outlaw, too?"

The bobcat nodded. "Not very harmless, but not the hardest gunslinger in the area. He was famous for his alcohol caused rampages and he already shot some people for a small reason."

Rango sighed again. Now he had to admit: There was a serial killer around the town.

* * *

The news spread like a wildfire in the town. Of course, everybody was afraid and assailed him with questions.

"Alright, alright, people, calm down," Rango cried when he was standing in the saloon. Around him the whole town. "I can't guarantee that there is no danger for everyone here. At the moment just outlaws were murdered. But it' still the best that we keep in the houses for a while, until I can give an all-clear signal. Or better, after I had revealed that incident."

"How do you want to catch him?" Beans asked after the crowd was gone.

"I still don't know, Beans," Rango whispered to her. "But don't worry. Criminals have their methods, but I have my own methods."


	6. Horror in the evening

Rango yawned loudly. He sat on his roadrunner somewhere in the desert and poured in some coffee into a cup.

Deep in thoughts, he let his eyes wander over the almost dark landscape. Around him hills and little flat rocks. He stood on a little elevation, in hope to watch something suspicious.

For many days he did this every evening. Beans had given him a coffee in a thermos bottle to keep awake.

Suddenly he lifted his head. Between some rocks he had seen a movement.

Quickly he put away the coffee and rode to the point. But it wasn't a person. It was a lonely roadrunner. No, more roadrunners. Rango climbed down and grasped one of them on its reins.

"Where is your rider?"

He looked around. But nobody was there.

A bad feeling rose inside him.

As fast as he could, he jumped on his own roadrunner and traced back the footprints where the roadrunners had come from.

Suddenly he had to stop again.

First, he thought something wasn't right with the coffee which he had drunken or the evening lights played a prank with his eyes. He blinked several times.

On the floor, not far away on a flat area, lay a few bodies. Arrayed in next to one another. And not far away from them, another body hanged in the air on a wood frame. In front of that hanging body stood a black figure and was busy with him.

Rango's lips started to tremble. Sometime he managed to give a sound.

"HEY!"

The plying person turned in his direction. But the chameleon couldn't see details because of the darkness. Out of fear Rango drew his revolver. But in the next moment the dark figure scurried away.

"Hey!" Like in a trance, Rango pulled the trigger. Maybe he only wanted to make noise.

Suddenly the dark figure flapped its wings and flew away.

Rango was like paralyzed. Had he dreamed?

But then he found out how to use his feet again and ran to the hanging person first.

The figure wore sloppily clothes and fur.

Rango touched him, but he showed no reaction. Suddenly he felt something strange in his hands.

He grabbed it and eyed it carefully. It was thin and long. He followed the long unusual thing. It was somehow connected with the hanging man and with a… plastic sac.

Rango looked up.

It was an IV line and an infusion bag.

Hastily Rango ran around the person. It was a rabbit. But somehow the shape looked familiar to him.

He winced. Quickly he ran to the three other figures who lay on the ground.

They lay on their bellies, their hands bound on the back together. Like slain animals after a hunt.

Rango ran from one to another. Finally, he bent down to the last figure and turned its head to the side. It was a Gila monster.


	7. Hallucinations

"At least they are still alive," Doc said in his doctor's office. "But still unconscious."

He took a towel and cleaned his hands. "But something is strange."

"What's strange?" Rango asked and had to yawn loudly again. It was very late in the night and it hadn't been a simple thing for him to transport the four gunslingers to town with the help of some other (tired) people.

Now they lay in beds in Doc's house, but Rango had to admit that their behavior was very strange. The four men seemed to sleep like normal, but from time to time, their hands and fingers twitched like they would have nerve disorders.

Slowly the doctor and the sheriff walked through the bed rows.

The mysterious killer hadn't seemed to start his "work" with Stump, Chorizo and Bill. But Kinski, who had hanged on the robe, gave more cause of concern. Thoughtfully Rango looked at the IV line and infusion bag on a little table next to him, what Doc had removed from his arm. It was half filled with Kinski's blood.

"Who was that thing?" Rango thought to himself.

Doc went next to the sleeping rabbit and grabbed his arm. "Look at this," Doc said and pointed under the fur. "Stitch in the vein. Now we know what kind of needle was used."

Suddenly mumbling words were hearable in the room.

"No, …. No..."

Rango looked at Kinski, who was shaking his head gently. But his eyes were still closed.

Carefully the chameleon came closer. "Who was that?"

But the rabbit didn't reply.

"No… no… not my blood… NO!"

"I guess he is hallucinating," Doc guessed and tried to calm him down.

"No!"

Rango held the gunslinger's shoulder. "Tell me! Who was it?"

"No chance, sheriff," Doc stopped him. "They aren't fit to be questioned. I will give them a sedative."

With disappointment Rango bit his underlip. He had a few eyewitnesses, but they were unable to speak a word.

His glance fell on little needles which they had found around the four men. With big thinking wrinkle Rango eyed it. "Maybe you were right, Doc," he said. "These little arrows had to have been coated with a drug."

He looked back at the four martyred gunslingers. "That would explain their strange behavior at least."

"Possible," Doc agreed while he was filling some syringes. "But it would be helpful to know what kind of drug the guy had administered them. Maybe I could give them an antidote if it was a poison."

Rango nodded. "Indeed."

"Rango!" The door opened and Beans stood in the door frame. "Rango, you have to come! Something isn't right."

Rango sighed with a wail. "What next comes today now?"

"Come with me," Beans said without explanations and pulled him out of the house. On the street they came to a halt and the lizard girl pointed at the end of the street. "Look."

Rango narrowed his eyes. First, he just saw darkness, but then the slight silhouette of a snake became visible.


	8. Rumors

Carefully Rango went a few steps forward.

"Jake?" he asked. "Is that you?"

The shadow came closer. "Who else?"

The voice of the famous western killer sounded exhausted.

"Excuse me my appearance, but I had a very bad night walk."

"Why so?"

"I guess you have a problem, haven't you?" The rattlesnake lifted his hat covered eyes. "With a mysterious killer."

Rango's grew big. "What is it? Who is it? Do you know who it is?"

But the snake didn't answer first. Instead, he leaned his upper body against a house roof and took the chance to breathe in and out several times.

"I already had the bad pleasure to meet him."

"When?"

"A half hour ago."

"Did he…"

"Attack me? Kill me?" The old gunslinger smiled. "First fits, but the second one, no. I'm still here. He had thought he could mystify me, but I had some luck. He threw something at me, but it kept sticking in my belt."

The gigantic snake rolled her big coils around and stopped with his belt in front of Rango, where the chameleon could see a needle arrow stuck in the leather.

Carefully, he took it, while the snake was still panting for air. "It wasn't easy to escape his hunt."

Rango rubbed the needle between his fingers. "What kind of animal could that be?"

"If you want to hear my opinion, sheriff," Jake interrupted. "I heard about such kind of cases in Texas many months ago. Bloodless bodies, and always outlaws. But no hints of his identity."

Rango looked at him thoughtfully. "Any hope that he will disappear again?"

Jake's raised eyebrows gave him no hope. "Until he has enough," the armed rattlesnake said leisurely. "But if not… he will continue killing."

For a moment there was silence. But then, Rango threw the needle on the floor.

"Alright! That's enough. That guy wants a victim? Well, he can get it. It's still my town."


	9. Trapped

"That's not a good idea, Rango," Rango muttered to himself. "Not a good idea, think about something different. Oh, Beans," he continued his monologue. "That's not the time for backing down."

It was in the twilight. The chameleon walked through the desert, his uniform hidden under old clothes. "Don't worry. They are in near, they are in near."

He tried not to look back where some city people were watching his movements with a spyglass.

* * *

"Can you see him?" Buford asked.

Elgin, who was looking through the spyglass, waved at him warningly. "Shhh. Yes, but still nothing happened."

"Give me that," Beans ordered and took it from Elgin's hands.

Of course, the lizard girl was worried, and she didn't like Rango's idea to play the bait.

* * *

"Everything is okay, everything is okay," Rango persuaded himself. He had to play a role.

"I'm a gunslinger, and I like to rob women and children…"

Usually it wasn't a problem for him to slip into every role, but this time, a bloody crazy killer could appear on the stage… A serious real bloody crazy killer.

Maybe he should try another criminal song. What kind of actor could he imitate? He took out a cigar. The dry rolled thing tasted terrible. Next, he took his gun and pretended that he controlled the bullets.

"Two bullets less," he muttered in a dark satisfied voice. "Makes two souls less."

Was that sounding criminal enough? He asked himself.

After more than an hour still nothing happened, and after several quotes of western gunslingers, Rango gave rise to doubt in his plan.

Suddenly something tugged him in the air. Sharp claws dug in his clothes and almost touched his skin.

Did Beans call his name?

In the next moment he felt a stitch in his neck. His vision blurred. He just felt how he flew over the landscape and a tiredness surrounded him.


	10. Bloodlust

When Rango started to wake up, his body felt numb. But then his senses came back bit by bit. After a while the fog in his head cleaned. The first thing what he realized was, that he was hanging with his arms in the air. He looked down. His tip toes dangled a few inches over the ground.

Where was he? In a cave? Around him stone walls. And not far away there must be the exit, where he could see some stars in the sky. It was in the middle of the night.

The chameleon moved his hands, but somebody had fixed him very well.

A slight cold wind touched him. Now he realized that somebody had removed his shirt. All what he was wearing were his jeans. But his shoes and socks were gone, too.

Suddenly he winced. There were footsteps behind him from inside the cave.

"W-who a-re you?" He stuttered.

First, there was no reply. But shortly after, Rango screamed in fear. A long sharp nail of a finger had touched his neck and wandered down the backbones very slowly, as if the unknown person wanted to count every vertebra.

The finger stopped over the edge of his jeans, and disappeared again.

Rango felt how he trembled.

"What do you want?!" the chameleon asked loudly.

What went through the brain of that guy?

In the next moment, somebody lighted a matchstick and lighted an oil lamp. In the next second the cave entrance was lighted. A long shadow appeared on the floor from behind. Rango tried to look behind, but he couldn't turn his head completely backwards.

The unknown person let the oil lamp on the floor and came closer.

Rango hanged there stiffly. He felt like a prey on a plate. A victim in the predator's mercy. Without chance to run away.

Suddenly, with a harsh rush the shadow passed him and placed himself in front of him. Something covered the figure, what the chameleon couldn't define.

But then…

The stranger opened his arms and wings of a bat became visible.

Around his thin body, the bat wore a black suit and black pants, but no shirt or more.

The bat smiled. "Nice to meet you, little sheriff."

Rango froze in the same second. That bat had sharp teeth in his mouth. And now, everything was clear for the poor captured lizard.

"You… you are a vampire bat?" he asked hoarsely.

The killer lowered his wings. "What a quick perception you have."

He chuckled and Rango felt a shudder over his whole body. It wasn't a nice chuckling.

"You can consider yourself happy. Usually none of my victims catch a sign of me."

Rango's eyes grew wide. Victims?

He tried to swallow down his fear. "So, you did… dried them out?"

The vampire bat grinned and pulled something from the side. It was a wooden box filled with full infusion blood bags.

"I served myself," the vampire bat said and licked his lips. "With a few overstock for later."

"Served yourself?" Rango repeated. "You murdered people!"

"I needed blood."

"If you are so wild about blood, why don't you go to the blood donation station?"

The vampire bat grinned.

"And where should be the fun for me?" He came closer. "Be glad that I clean the world from the rubbish."

Like from nothing he took out a little arrow and held it very close in front of Rango's nose.

"Do you recognize that, little detective?" the bloody bat asked. "Of course, you know it."

Rango tried to figure out where he had given him a stitch.

The vampire bat smirked over his victim's desperation.

"Don't worry, little snack. I gave you something to sleep. Usually I gave everyone a stitch with a special drug of mine. It works similar like curare. It's just effective after an injection into the bloodstream, but ineffective if you swallow it."

He laughed.

"I was merciful that I gave them an anesthesia."

He reached out his bony hand and lifted the chameleon's chin. "But for you, I will make an exception. Your act was a very bad crime."

"What have I done?" Rango asked.

The vampire bat smiled and patted the skin. "You are too nosy. An unhealthy characteristic."

His sharp bat nail wandered along Rango's neck, over his shoulder and over the upper part of his hanging arm. Suddenly, with a quick movement, he slit open the skin a little. The cut started to bleed immediately. Gently the bat stroked with the fingertip of his forefinger over it. Then he removed his hand and held the blood-smeared finger in front of Rango's face. Then he moved it to his mouth and licked it clean.

Rango watched everything with scared face, while the vampire bat licked his lips.

"Mm, your blood is fresh."

"I – I thought vampire bats would only like to eat the blood of mammals or birds," Rango tried to say.

He winced fearfully when the bat grabbed the left side of his belly. "I started to love the smell and taste of reptile blood, too."

He dug his claws around his chest to keep his victim in place.

"Let's start the meal time," the vampire bat said with a dark smile.

He came closer with his face and wanted to suck the little bleeding wound on Rango's arm.

"Hey! Wait!" Rango cried. "Are you vaccinated against rabies?!"

"Can't remember."

His lips almost touched his cut wound.

"NO!"

Suddenly something pulled the vampire bat away from his whimpering hanging victim.

In the next second the murderer stared into the burning eyes of a very raging rattlesnake.

"You chose the wrong playmate for your games!"

Like a lightning the snake tugged the vampire bat outside and threw him in the air.

The rest was just a blaze of gunfire.

Rango didn't realize it. With cramped closed eyes, he was still hanging on the ceiling of the cave and prayed. Prayed that it was just a nightmare.

After a little while the shots stopped.

He winced when a still warm iron touched his bare skin. Burning eyes of the panting rattlesnake met him and he knew: It was over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The vampire in this story wasn't a mutated animal. Vampire bats live in parts of America like Texas. They drink blood only and can be a danger for humans too, because they can transmit rabies for example. I chose the Vampire bat species Dismodus rotundus here.


	11. The end of the nightmare

"It's a good thing, that he didn't bite you," Doc said while he was inspecting Rango's cut wound on his arm. The sheriff had spent the rest of the night in the hospital and caught up on some sleep so that he had woken up in the noon.

"I'm glad that Beans didn't see it… ouch!"

"That's right, you crazy guy!" Beans said who appeared from behind and had given him a slap on his head. "Never do that again! I was scared!"

Rango rubbed his head. "Sorry, Beans. How are the others?"

Doc finished his work. "Oh, while you were sleeping, they had left the house. After I had analyzed the drug from the unused needles, I could give them something against it."

"And where are they now?"

"Where else?"

* * *

Rango already heard the noise outside from the saloon. Carefully the chameleon peeked over the swing doors and looked into the room.

Like he had thought. Bill sat at the counter, not far away from Kinski. The rabbit gave the impression that he was dozing.

Stump and Chorizo sat around a table and played carts, whereby everyone guessed that his playmate was cheating.

"Bill!" Rango cried and opened the door.

"Wow," Bill turned around. "So, what have we got here? Or am I seeing it right? Nice to see you still life-sized."

Rango narrowed his eyes. Still the same rough guy, Rango thought with a disappointed sigh.

"It's hardly surprising, you leave your bed as thought nothing had happened."

"Is anything happened?" the Gila monster asked and grinned.

The sheriff growled and had hoped for a little "thanks" from that bully.

"Sit down, Sheriff." Bill pointed on a free barstool next to him, who stood between him and Kinski.

Rango sighed again, but he followed the instructions.

Shortly after the chameleon had taken his place, his glance wandered to Kinski, who had leaned his chin on his elbows.

"Are you okay?" Rango asked.

"Mm," Kinski mumbled back. "Just a little sleepy."

"After sleep," Bill joked, but Rango guessed that it was because of the blood loss.

Meanwhile, Bill had given Rango a glass of cactus juice.

With acidulous gesture, Rango took it. But maybe it was Bill's way to say "thank you".

Thoughtfully Rango stroked over the edge of the glass.

"One thing's for sure," Rango began. "That's the last time that I did something like that."

Bill emptied his own glass. "Of course. Why should such a creature come back here?"

At this moment, a dark figure appeared in the door and threw its wings in the air.

With fear, everyone turned around.

"Did we scare you?" the city boy Cletus laughed. He stood on the shoulders of his friend Dutch and had swung a black cape.

With a loud growl, Bill threw something at them, so that the boys ran away laughingly.

"Never do this again!" he shouted.

"Yes, never again," Rango muttered and felt for his quick pulse. The cut on his arm was still aching, and he hoped that he never had to do this again. Never again.

**\- The end -**


End file.
